The Beginning

I’ve already made it through my second week and so far I love my internship. When I walked in on my first day, I was kindly greeted by my new co-workers. I was ready for my new professional lifestyle – short heels and all – until I looked around me in dismay to find that all the other girls were wearing flats. However, it was hard to feel too embarrassed when everyone made me feel so comfortable. Almost everybody came over to my desk to introduce themselves and asked me about myself and my interests. There are only about 10 people in the office, and a majority are under the age of 30. Everyone gets along well, constantly collaborating with one another as they are each on individual teams for each of the clients. Each day I get multiple messages on Google Chat from my coworkers, so I soon caught on that this is how they choose to communicate even though everyone works within speaking distance. I was shocked when I was told to “make a pitch” within my few days in the office. Immediately I was treated like anyone else in the office rather than an just an intern. I am pleased that my boss and coworkers trust me to do important work, and I know that I will learn a lot by working with them throughout the summer.

Searching For The Right Juice

This week at F-Factor I was asked to find juices/smoothies from a place nearby that had less than 250 calories, 10 grams of protein, and 3-5 grams of fiber. This may sound like an easy task yet most of the juice places nearby did not supply the nutritional information online. Therefore this task became difficult to accomplish. 

In order to complete this task I had to search for the company names, then either find the information online for each juice and compare them or call the company for the nutritional information. I enjoyed completing this task because it was beneficial for me as well. I enjoy juices and smoothies yet I usually enjoy the ones that taste best of course. I searched for the nutritionals and the criterion I was given was not very popular among many of the juices. I learned that many juices are not as nutritious as one may think. For example, the juices filled with solely fruit are not very healthy considering the high amounts of sugar and low amount of protein. 

My solution was to find a smoothie that contained protein and fiber from certain ingredients such as almond milk or chia seeds. This task then became much easier when looking at each company and their drinks. Now that I have found out the nutritional information behind each drink I know what to order when I get a juice/smoothie. 

Events Galore at Atlanta Magazine

I have been very busy throughout the last few weeks at Atlanta Magazine! First, I finished my work for the Top Doctors event as it occurred on June 19^th. Throughout the past couple of weeks, the other intern, Jessica, and I were instructed to call all 350 doctors offices and ask if the nominated doctor had received his or her invitation. Our boss, Randy, was worried about the RSVP count at the time, so this really helped as we were able to resend an invitation if they were not sure if they had received it or not. Randy was very grateful for our work, because when we reached the event, the turnout was great. On the day of the event, Jessica and I arrived at about 9:30 at the office where we stuffed the “goodie bags” with a few other employees. Jessica and I then worked until about 3 to get all of the nametags in plastic sleeves, put them in alphabetical order, and transport them to the event. For the rest of the night, Jessica and I stood at the Sponsored Giveaway table. Mini Cooper sponsored the event, so they were offering two packages of a weekend stay at The Westin Hotel as well as a Mini Cooper to use for the weekend. The event went really well – from speakers, to good food, to great giveaways, - everyone who attended definitely enjoyed the event and felt honored to be named a Top Doctor!

            I also attended the Crown Royal event the following Wednesday, which was a Whisky tasting event. Though Jessica and I were not very involved with the planning that went into the event, it was still great to attend. We stood outside in the driveway and checked each car in, which was very busy (and very hot in the Atlanta heat). We had to eventually turn people away once the venue hit capacity! Randy was extremely appreciative and let us know that previous interns had bad attitudes regarding similar tasks. Even though it’s not the most glorious task, I know that somebody has to do it!

            In the next few weeks, we don’t have any events. I’m looking forward to working on basic things in the office and seeing what Randy does on a daily basis!

            Attached are a few pictures from both events!

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Week 1

My first week at Barr-Harris Children’s Grieving Center was not exactly what I expected. I am the only intern there, and therefore am by far one of the youngest workers in the office. I didn’t mind this too much, but there were times where I wished I had someone to discuss with or to work with!

The first day I wanted to make sure I blended in, so I dressed professionally and I expected to encounter people doing the same. To my surprise, the dress code at this office was not as professional as I expected. In fact, people were wearing jeans and sweatshirts and gym shoes! I still dress professionally though. I’d feel uncomfortable coming to work in less respectable clothing!

I don’t have my own cubicle. In fact, I sit at a table inside my boss’s large office. This will definitely keep me focused! This was nice though because it initially made me feel comfortable around my boss, and I knew she wanted me to have a good experience because she was often checking in with me to see how my work was going. I work very closely with her, but not many others in the office. I have done some research for other staff members, but our interaction is mainly done through email. I’m interested to see if this will change or not over the course of my internship.

I’m looking forward to participating in the numerous projects that have here in my upcoming weeks!

My internship is inside the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, which is so awesome! I am surrounded by a psychologists not only involved in Barr-Harris, but in other practices as well. 

Post 3: Lansing State Capitol

It's gone by incredibly fast, but I have reached the halfway point of my summer and therefore my internship experience. :(

To be truthful, it has been really hard to track my progression because most of the things I do each week are the same tasks I performed the week prior, and I don't always feel very challenged.  I enter constituents into the Michigan Casework database, which is easy.  Once in a while, they will let me call a constituent back regarding their case.  Unfortunately, EVERY time I've had to make a phone call, I don't get through to anyone.  So I think it's safe to say I'm a professional at leaving voicemails.  The one thing I hope to continue improving on is drafting letters to constituents.  I'm a lot better at speaking than I am writing, and sometimes it's difficult for me to find the appropriate way to put my thoughts on paper.  My goal is to draft a letter that requires no editing or changes by my supervisors.

The other day, we had a group of women working for the SOAP project come into the office to discuss a package of bills regarding sex trafficking.  I decided to do some research on the bills and check their status to see where they stood in Congress.  I noticed that many of the bills had been amended, so I went through and found all of the changes in language that had been made and relayed the information back to the group.  The group as well as my supervisor were very impressed with me.  I really enjoyed researching the proposed bills and getting the chance to hear about what the group was doing to get involved and help make a difference in their community.

As I said before, the biggest challenge that I'm facing right now is the lack of duties that are assigned to me.  I don't feel like I'm being utilized to my fullest potential, and I have said something to my supervisor previously.  Driving back to Lansing tomorrow, I plan to once again discuss my situation with my supervisor and help formulate some other ways that I can help around the office.

Stanley Cup Champions

I was fortunate enough to be selected as the hockey operations/marketing intern for the LA Kings this summer.  The unfortunate part is that hockey comes to a bit of a standstill after winning the Stanley Cup.

My first day was just a few days after the Kings won, and the staff celebrated as hard as the players. After meeting the players in Las Vegas and drinking out of the Stanley Cup, the reality hit me that my internship definitely already peaked. Don't get me wrong, it's still going to be a fulfilling experience..but it really can't get better than that.

With just a few days into my internship, I find myself doing mostly busy work; i.e. intern-y stuff. This is what I had expected. Interns aren't particularly useful; we don't know anything. I have been utilizing my time in the office networking and finding out if and where I could see myself having a future.

Getting to know the other staff members wasn't particularly easy. That is, until 6am this morning. The staff that plays hockey play a pick-up game every Monday morning at 6am in which I partook. Being back in my element, back on the ice, I found it easy to meet all the other staff. A few shifts in and I was one of the boys, so-to-speak.  They invited me to breakfast after hockey and we all walked into the office together. I most certainly will be returning every Monday.

Week 4

As I finish up my 4th week in my internship program, I look back and reflect on my experience as I almost reach the halfway mark. For me, the most valuable aspect so far has been my ability to understand the company and future career opportunities. I spend much of my time meeting with employees and learning about different aspects of the business. Working in a financial institution I have learnt about credit, the lending side of banking, the buying side, interest rates, terms, and other aspects. One thing that sets apart this company from my previous internships is the emphasis placed on the company culture and values. Everyone is willing to help, and looks out for each other. At the same time intelligence is highly stressed as well as a good work ethic. I hope to take the lessons I learn from my internship and apply them to future experiences both professionally and socially. This week, I travelled out of the office to meet executives, sat in on meetings, and worked on Excel and PowerPoint presentations have also become closer with many team members and look forward to growing those relationships as time moves on. I have been using LinkedIn to expand my network as well as business lunches.

Madrid Internship - Post #3

Hi everyone,

Because I’ve been designing materials like posters and informative pamphlets, I’ve been able to get feedback every time I finish a project. With design, it’s been challenging to maintain a balance between following the image of the organization while also being creative with each new assignment. So far, my supervisors have approved of a lot the work that I’ve been doing but asking to change a couple of elements to fit exactly what they’re looking for. Overall, the pace with which I work could be improved. Sometimes it seems like I take too long to deliver on a certain project even if it appears to be fairly simple. Some of the challenge is in trying to translate the Spanish terms in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. I’m not completely familiar with all the commands for these programs in English, especially because I started using Illustrator this past week, but having to navigate through all the tools in Spanish seems to have slowed me down. The people in my office have always been patient but a personal goal for me is to try to work a faster pace while still maintaining a high level of performance. I just finished working on creating cards that will be displayed in supermarkets around Spain to inform people about how 1 Kilo de Ayuda functions. Thinking about how widely distributed the card will be was a little overwhelming but my boss seemed to be really pleased with what I drafted up. I enjoyed the whole process because it allowed me to use some of my creativity and also explore more of Adobe Illustrator.

I might be working on creating a video soon for the organization, which is closer to my comfort zone!

Until next time,
Hannah

Week 3: Overcoming Obstacles

After completing about 3 weeks of my internship, I think it is safe to say that it has gone smoothly for the most part. I have learned that in this industry there are times that are slow and calm, but when it rains, it pours. For the producer I am working with, Sharlette, the busiest times come depending on how many segments we are working on. When there isn't much to do, I always ask if there is anything I can do to help. I would say that is the biggest obstacle I've had to overcome. I want to contribute and be a useful asset as an intern, so I've found that it's extremely important to make myself useful. Usually, I am asked to research a portion of a story we are working on, or look up certain facts that can contribute to the story. For example, I found out that the Academy was holding a screening and panel discussion of Do the Right Thing for its 25th anniversary. Because of this research, ET sent a crew to the screening, which will be a part of the show's piece covering the 25th Anniversary of Do the Right Thing. My boss was really excited about this discovery because she said it was going to add a lot to the segment. From this particular instance, I have learned the importance of doing thorough research and through that research, the impact I can make on the show and a good impression I can leave.

Week 5 - Counting

Another great week of work. This past week was a very good one. I now walk in to the office each morning and finally feel part of the team. I know everyone’s name and they all know mine. My boss is a huge soccer fan who played in college and also played professional, so the world cup has been a big deal in the office. The company is also a European Company, and most of the other employees are from Europe and love soccer as well. It has been great being able to take periodic breaks from my work and watch the World Cup with the other employees. As I do enjoy most of the office work I have, I really enjoy going out into the city and doing field work.

On Thursday, I was asked to go down to SoHo to check out a spot for one of our brands. There is already a store in place there, but the location does not seem right for them so they are not renewing their lease. I was told to go over there for 30 minutes to an hour and scope out the location. I was told to count the number of foot traffic in the area and note which ones were big groups and families or which ones were lone walkers. I had to count the amount of people that walked in and out of the store and compare it with the numbers of people who simply walked by. I had to see if the numbers matched up well. I knew that our brand we are considering attracts somewhat of a similar crowd as the store currently there so I had to get a feel for the type of shoppers that walked by.

I then summarized all of this data into an email for my boss. It is great that he trusts me to go out into the field and do research that actually will have an effect on his decision of whether or not to move into the location.

2nd to Last Week (This time for real)

Since I was able to extend my internship, my 2nd to last week turned out to be this past one. It was a lot more productive, and a lot more exciting. As I have been spending time with the development team for the majority of my internship, I had the awesome opportunity to start writing a treatment for a show. A treatment is basically a detailed summary of what a pitched (proposed) show will be about and what kind of format it will follow. Formats include competition, makeover, investigation, ect. One way that a lot of shows get off the ground is by basically following the format of one show but with different people, goals, or themes. A lot of different cooking shows have made it on your television screens following this method, and even more fashion shows have done the same thing.

Writing the treatment was demanding, but it was great as I finally was able to exercise my own creative decisions and talk with one of the employees in development about the direction the show could go and how it should be best portrayed in the treatment. I learned that the most important thing is (this is not gonna be a shocker) to keep the audience interested and avoid big scary words or science. Even in the treatment (which the networks would be reading) I learned that I had to rely on well written and succinct paragraphs of what we wanted the show to be and what we thought would have the biggest “wow” factor. Now the treatment is done, and will most likely get sent to a network. Fingers Crossed it gets greenlit! 

Blog 3: Weekly Trainings

One of the most important philosophies in our office is to over communicate. So we meet Monday mornings to have office meets to make sure everyone is on the same page and then every Friday we have a training with all employees and interns, we even get catered lunch! Wohoo! The weekly trainings are my favorite part of my internship this year. I feel this is where I am learning the most about personal and business success. The CEO Dave Meltzer has written a book, Connected to Goodness. Most of the trainings  discuss the key principles from his book. The foundation to Dave's personal and professional success all begins with being happy and find out what makes you happy and as long as you do this then the goodness in life will find its way to you. I am really trying to commit and follow to some of the exercises he teaches us to gain a more positive outlook on life.


Things have been busy around the office this week with the excitement of the world cup games and the expansion of our project list.Yesterday our President Warren Moon had an interview with the NFL Network. My boss has even hired an other intern and I to have personal training sessions three times a week with his two daughters and their friends. Its more fun then it is actual work. We also have our office mascot Riley who keeps us all company through out the day. He is the sweetest dog but mostly he will only give you attention if you have food. Riley likes to greet all of our clients and beg for treats. I think he also helps to lower some peoples stress level when things get really hectic.

 

Great Week at HollywoodLife...

This was a very fun and eventful week at HollywoodLife. This is because my boss told me to go to an event where I would have to interview certain celebrities. The event was a charity event called, Many Hopes at Canoe Studios in NYC. The event was great. Not only did I get to interview cool celebs such as Annalynne McCord, Jessica Stam, DJ Zeke Thomas and Jeremy Penn; I got free food and got to network with some really cool people. I met a really nice woman who was 33 (also a journalist there to interview celebs) and we got along very well and she told me to send her my resume next summer for a possible internship at E! News where she works. I will definitely keep in contact with her because I would love to intern at E! News next summer. The celebrity at this event who I loved to interview was Annalynne McCord. She was so real and really easy to talk to. I really liked her. Also that week, I took a lunch break with some of my other interns and we walked to Luke's Lobster Truck only 10 blocks away and got an amazing lobster roll-- which has been on my restaurant list for NYC this summer. It was great-- definitely recommend trying it. Additionally, during the days in the office when I was working some cool celebrities stopped in for interviews such as Kandi from the Real Housewives of Atlanta and the whole cast from the new show, Girls Meets World and some of the cast members from Boys Meets World. I loved that show when I was younger so it was really cool to see the actor, Corey in the office. He looked so old it was so creepy. The whole cast was super nice and wanted to take photos with everyone!

Below are some pictures from the event and my week in the office and feel free to always read my blogs I post on HollywoodLife.com and type in the search bar Morgan McCarthy- enjoy!

I really love attending events so I hope my boss sends me to more because there great experience and they have so many networking opportunities. I can't believe I only have three more weeks of my internship left, I actually learned an immense amount of knowledge so far!

Initial Impressions

I realize I’m late to post about just starting/ initial impressions, but here it finally is. HSI Productions is a commercial and music video production company based in Los Angeles. My first day there, although I was told to come in at 9:00am, didn’t start until around 9:45. It was the beginning of Cannes Lions festival and so everyone from production executives and agency heads were in France networking and receiving awards. As a result, the day and the week was slower than usual but still, a nice transition. 

The culture is very relaxed. I was told to wear casual clothes but did not expect it to mean that some would be wearing ripped jean shorts and tank tops. In a way, despite the casualness, everyone here in the office is well presented and acts professionally. 

The office itself is designed with modern architecture, exposed wood beamed ceiling, concrete floor, white walls, and some killer art pieces on the walls - including an extremely large original KAWS piece right behind the front desk.

As a production company, the flow of work and traffic is sometimes sporadic. The production bays are either all filled by crews working to deliver a commercial or music video in only a few days of turn around time, or are empty as a wave of new business has already passed. At the moment there are three commercial shoots being prepped.

Although the accounting department is located in a separate building, I, along with the other employees, frequently cross the parking lot to deliver documents or help with what is needed there. And, although the employees are in separate buildings, there exists a certain sense of camaraderie throughout the company. 

Week 4

Work for the week has been slow, and quiet since most of the M&A team is travelling. I have had a few projects to work on and am gaining more skills on excel and financial diligence. The M&A team are working on multiple deals at once and it has been chaotic at times but quiet other times. I am looking forward to the next 3 or 4 weeks I have left in my internship at NFP.

Week 4: Best Week Yet at Channel V Media

Hi Everyone!

This week was the first time I felt like I was an integral role at Channel V Media. Like I have stated in my past blogs the environment I work in is rather small. There are approximately twelve individuals working in my office and four to five interns depending on the day. Due to the small number of people in proportion to our clients and weekly workload I do have a lot of responsibilities even as an intern. 

In last week's blog I wrote about the pitch I sent out for July 4th for our client NOHO. Today I received an email with the link to an article written about the NOHO infused cocktails on Food & Beverage. The article is titled "NOHO Introduces its July 4th Inspired Cocktails" (below I included the link to the article.) The best part is the writer asked if he could post MY original pitch as the content of his article! It was so surreal I couldn't believe it. My mentor and boss were so excited for me and told me this rarely happens. When I first sent out the July 4th pitch I never thought people would respond to me let alone post it on their site! 

I never believed a young inexperienced intern like myself would positively impact our company and clients in such a way. My perspective as a member of CVM is absolutely changing and I hope I continue to evolve and earn a stable role at Channel V Media.  

https://fb101.com/2014/06/noho-introduces-its-july-4th-inspired-cocktails/